Identically Opposite
by Authorgirl12
Summary: 17 year old Jon Cozart has spend his entire life with the the family that adopted him long ago, in which he loves very much and loves him just as equally. But what happens when Jon finds out that there's someone out there that links to his unknown past and may change his life forever? They'll soon find that no two people are exactly alike, but they can get pretty darn close to it.
1. Chapter 1: The News

_**No two people are exactly alike; it's something that everyone knows. Although, some people are more alike than others, so alike that they may be called identical, when in reality they're not. This is the story of two people who may appear identical, but are actually complete opposites in many ways. And they may not know it, but they're actually more alike than they might think. Confusing, right? Wrong. This is the story of two people who are so different, that they are almost exactly the same. They are simply Identically Opposite…**_

_September 3 – 2:35 PM_

"Mom! We're home!"

The four of us walked through the front door, littering the floor with our backpacks like we did every day when we got home from school.

"Mom?" I repeated after there was no response.

You see, 'mom' wasn't our actual mom. Her and her husband Tad adopted me and my four siblings so long ago that I can't remember anything prior to my adoption. Well, none of us have the same birth parents, but I think of them as my siblings because I've known them for as long as I can remember. We were practically siblings.

Just then, my oldest sister, Raleigh, who had graduated high school the year before, appeared around the corner. She had a very concerned look on her face. That couldn't be good.

"Are you okay?" Addison, who was just a year younger than me, asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." Raleigh responded, "But there's something that mom wants to talk to you guys about."

"Is _she _ok?" Landon, my only brother and the youngest of the five of us, being the only one still in middle school, asked.

"Yes, everyone's fine. Just come in here so she can explain what's going on." She said, all seriousness in her voice.

We looked at each other uneasily, then decided to follow her. We followed her into the kitchen where our mom was sitting at the dining table, with a dark blue binder sitting in front of her.

"Wait a second." Addison said, pointing at the binder, "That's not what I think it is, is it?"

Mom nodded nervously, "Yes, it's exactly what you think it is."

That's when it hit me. That wasn't just any old binder; it was a file… for a person.

"Mom, I thought you and dad decided not to adopt anymore." I said, having an internal panic attack. I could tell that I wasn't the only one feeling this way.

"We can't adopt another kid! Not after what happened with Maddie-" Addison began, but Mom interrupted her.

"Don't bring her into this!" She shouted sternly, then quickly calmed herself, "Just sit down and let me explain."

We all cautiously sat around the table, anxious to hear what she was about to tell us.

"We're not adopting another kid." She continued.

We all sighed with relief, but that was short lived.

"We're fostering one." She concluded.

"What?!" The four of us exclaimed in unison. I glanced at Raleigh, and realized that she had been staring at me with an uneasy look on her face. I gave her a confused look, but she just looked away as she focused her eyes on her intertwined fingers in her lap.

"Are you insane?!" Landon exclaimed.

I turned my head to Penelope, who was barely a year older than Landon and three years younger than me. She was a mute; she never talked. But we always knew what she was thinking by the looks on her face. At that moment, she glared up at me with a genuinely scared expression on her face. She most likely had the same thing going through her head that I did. With an effort to comfort her, I gently grabbed her hand and laced my fingers with hers. I gave her a look that told her that everything was going to be okay. I didn't believe myself for a second, but she seemed to understand as she gently squeezed my hand. The two of us had grown very close over the years, and she seemed to understand me better than anyone else, even though she never said a word.

"We can't bring another psycho into our house!" Addison ranted, "Do you want to get us all killed?!"

"Nobody is going to get killed!" Mom shouted, "Me and your father knew the risks of this, but it was a decision that we had to make!" She glared at me with that same uneasy look that Raleigh had given me. Why did they keep looking at me like that?

"So, who is it?" Addison asked, "Is it some deranged psychopath from off of the streets? Maybe it's a known serial killer that's thirsty for blood."

"_No_, he's from a foster home in New Orleans." Mom answered, scowling at Addison for saying such a thing.

"New Orleans?" I asked, "Why so far away?"

"Well, there is an unhealthy amount of kids and teens in that foster home, and they are looking to 'get rid' of some of them as the lady put it." She began to explain, "She found me online when she saw that I had adopted multiple times before, and asked if I was interested in taking in some of them. When I told her that I was no longer interested in adopting, she still insisted that I look at some of the files, so I played along and I looked through some of them… that's when I saw the picture. I could've sworn my eyes were deceiving me. I couldn't help but ask a million questions. She said that they knew absolutely nothing about his background, except that he had most likely run away from his previous foster home. She had no idea why I was so interested in him. She claims that he's really quiet and 'very uninteresting', so I had to explain why he caught my eye."

"Are you going to tell _us _why he caught your eye?" Landon asked, seeming to be growing impatient.

"I'm getting there." Mom said sternly, "As soon as we got the DNA tests back, I knew that my eyes hadn't been deceiving me." She glanced at me once again, swallowing hard.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" I asked with a slightly annoyed tone in my voice.

She sighed uneasily, then slid the binder toward me, "Take a look."

I looked for permission in her eyes as she nodded toward the binder. I cautiously let go of Penelope's hand and slid the binder a little closer. My siblings curiously leaned closer to me; trying to get a look at the mystery that the binder beheld. I slowly flipped it open, and gaped at what I saw on the first page.

"Why is there a picture of me in here?" I asked.

"And why does it say that his name is Bryan?" Landon asked, obviously just as confused as I was.

"That's not Jon that's in that picture." Mom told us, "His name is Bryan, and he's on his way here right now."

"You better not be saying what I think you're saying." I said nervously.

"I'm saying exactly what you think I'm saying." She concluded, "Jon, you have a twin brother."


	2. Chapter 2: Just Sleep it Off

_September 3 – 2:40 PM_

I just stared at her in awe, too confused to even say anything.

"What?" I finally urged.

"We ran a DNA test just to make sure, and it concluded that the two of you are without a doubt siblings." She told me.

"Uh, yeah, we could be _siblings_, but that doesn't exactly mean that we're _twins_." I debated, my brain not excepting the fact that there was another me.

"You have the same birthday." Raleigh said, "Same day. Same year."

"Plus you both look like the same person." Landon pointed out the obvious, glaring down at the picture of my 'twin' in the binder, "There's no arguing that."

"But… I…" I tried to say, but I couldn't come up with any words to explain how I was feeling. This information just kinda came up out of nowhere and slapped me in the face.

"There's no way I have a twin." I managed to say, "Don't you think I'd know if I had a twin?"

"Jon, we adopted you when you were just months old." Mom explained, "There's no way that you could know."

"But why didn't you adopt both of us instead of just one?" I asked.

"The two of you most likely got separated before we found you." She continued, "Siblings get separated very easily in the system."

I just didn't know what to say. I was completely speechless.

We all jumped when Mom's phone suddenly began playing 'Don't Blink' by Kenny Chesney. We all knew that that was her ringtone for Dad.

"Hello?" She answered. She listened to her husband speak for a moment as we all anxiously watched her. She glared at me for a moment, "Yes, he knows."

I sighed, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"He's kinda confused, but I'm sure he'll be better once they meet." She continued.

"I'm right here, you know?" I said, shaking my head.

She ignored me and continued her conversation, "Okay, that's good… How is he?"

"Is he with dad?" Addison asked suddenly.

Mom held up a finger, signaling her to be quiet as she listened to her husband's reply, "The lady said that he tends to be quiet, so that would make sense."

I tensed as she spoke about my brother. It was weird thinking that he was right there with my dad on the other line. It was weird that he even existed. Penelope seemed to sense my tenseness, so she grabbed my hand once again and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I looked over to her and she gave me the same look that I had given her just minutes before. I managed a small smile to tell her that I was okay.

"Okay, I'll see you in a couple of hours, then." Mom said with a smile on her face, "Love you too. Bye." She hung up the phone and glanced up at us, "They're on their way."

"Did he seriously drive all the way to New Orleans?" Addison asked.

Mom nodded, "They couldn't afford to get him here any other way."

This was a shock to us, because we lived in Austin, Texas. The states were right next to each other, but Austin and New Orleans were still quite a bit away from each other.

"Quick question." I said, "How far of a drive is New Orleans from here?"

"About 7 ½ hours." Mom answered.

"Are you trying to tell me that he left at, like, 7 AM?" Landon asked.

"Yes, he left shortly after you guys left for school." Raleigh answered.

"How long have you known about this?" I asked, "I mean… how long have you known about Bryan?"

"Since yesterday." Mom answered, seeming ashamed of herself.

"Then why didn't you tell me yesterday?!" I exclaimed, getting a little aggravated.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, "I should've told you as soon as I found out."

I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to scream at her. But I couldn't get myself mad enough to do either. I wanted to be mad, but I just wasn't. It almost felt as if I was excited in a way. I mean, I knew absolutely nothing about where I came from, and now I finally had a chance to figure some things out. For example, why did I have a twin that I wasn't told about? And why were we separated at such a young age? Plus, I could possibly finally find out who my birth parents were, and why they got rid of me- I mean _us_- like we were just a couple pieces of trash that meant nothing to them. There was another possibility that I had other biological siblings that I didn't know about. Although, it'd be kinda difficult to figure any of that out if Bryan knew just as little as I did. _But_, even if he didn't know anything about our past, just simply being with him and hearing stuff about his life could help to put things together and more easily figure out where we came from.

"I promise you that this will make up for everything." She promised me.

At that moment, I didn't believe her, but in the long run, I would figure out that she was without a doubt completely 100% right. Not only that, but from that day on, my life would never be the same.

That afternoon seemed to lag on forever. What felt like hours, was only about 20 minutes, and it felt as if time was in slow motion as we waited for Dad to arrive with the mystery boy. I spent about an hour just staring at his picture. We looked _exactly _the same. I could've sworn I was looking at a picture me. I just couldn't get it in my head that it _wasn't _me. I aimlessly roamed the house for hours, not knowing what to do or what to think. I pretty much blocked everyone out; not saying a single word to anyone. I just couldn't wrap my head around anything. I even banged my head on the wall for a couple of minutes to try to get myself out of my state of shock, before Mom stopped me and made me sit down in the living room to try and calm down.

"This is taking a huge toll on him." I could hear her say to Raleigh just outside of the room, "He's never acted like this before."

"He's gone his entire life not knowing anything about who he is or where he came from. I'd react the same way if I found out such a huge piece of information." Raleigh reassured her.

"I can hear you, you know?" I shouted back to them.

Raleigh appeared from around the corner and sat herself on the couch next to me, "Listen, I know you're still in shock from what you learned today, trust me, I would be too, but I think you should try to calm down a bit."

"I've been trying to do that for the past 5 hours." I said, rubbing my tired eyes in an effort to keep myself awake. It was only 7:30, so I wasn't sure why I was so tired, but it definitely wasn't helping anything.

"Jon, you've gotta stop freaking out so much." She tried telling, "Why don't you take a nap or something? You know, to help calm you down?"

"No, I wanna be awake when they get here." I said, shaking my head.

"I'll wake you up before they get home." She suggested, lacing her fingers with mine. As you can tell, me and my siblings were very close.

I sighed, "I guess a nap would make me feel better."

She smiled as she wrapped me in a hug. I didn't hesitate to hug back.

"I love you, little dude." She whispered.

"I'm 17, you can't call me that anymore." I said, holding back a laugh.

"You'll always be my little dude." She laughed. That had been her nickname for me for as long as I could remember, and she called me it because of how… scrawny, I was. That word was pretty accurate to describe me. It didn't bother me when she called me 'little dude', but I only told her not to because I knew that it annoyed her when I did. Yeah, I was that kind of brother.

We stood as she walked me up the stairs. As it turned out, I was more tired than I thought I was, because I stumbled on the stairs and would've fallen if Raleigh hadn't caught me. I couldn't help but laugh when she had to guide me the rest of the way up.

Upon entering my bedroom, Raleigh closed the door behind me and headed back downstairs.

"What's up?" Landon asked from his bed, not bothering to even look up at me, for he was concentrating on the book that lay in front of him. Being that our house wasn't all that big, the two of us shared a room. We weren't the only ones, because Addison, Penelope, and Raleigh also shared a room. Unlike theirs, our room was pretty plain. The walls consisted of dark brown and crème colors, with a single window on the back wall that looked out over the street. Both of our beds were pushed against the right wall, while one other unoccupied bed was pushed against the left wall. No one had touched that bed in about 5 years, considering its dark history, so it just sat there unused by anyone or anything.

"I'm just gonna take a nap for a little while." I told him, flopping onto my bed, not even bothering to cover myself with a blanket.

"You okay?" He asked, taking a moment to revert his eyes from his book.

"Yeah, I'm just still a little confused." I answered, staring up at the ceiling.

"Figuring out that you have a long lost twin brother can be pretty confusing." He agreed, returning back to his book.

"Yeah…" I said quietly. I was fighting to stay awake as I finally gave in and let my eye lids close. I took a deep breath as I felt relaxed for the first time that day. I slowly drifted away, and before I knew it, I was asleep.

…

_September 3 – 9:34 PM_

"Jon. Jon, wake up."

My eyes fluttered open to see a dark face looming over me. I screamed like a little girl and quickly jolted upward, accidentally bonking heads with the person.

"Ow! It's just me, you wingnut! And calm down, you're gonna wake up Landon!"

I blinked a couple of times as my eyes adjusted to the dark, and I realized that the figure was just Addison. I glanced over to Landon's bed to see him lying fast asleep under his covers.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked her, rubbing my now throbbing head.

"Raleigh told me to wake you up because Dad will be home in a half an hour." She answered, also rubbing her head, causing her blonde hair to fall in front of her face.

I had almost forgotten about that.

I quickly got up and took a fast shower, making the water as cold as I could bare in order to help wake me up.

"You feeling better?" Raleigh asked as I hopped down the stairs about 20 minutes.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks." I smiled at her. It was the truth, I _did _feel a lot better, and my mind was more clear and prepared for whatever was about to happen. I guess I just needed a little sleep.

I ventured into the living room to see that Landon had woken up and was now sitting on the couch with Penelope.

"You ready, dude?" He asked.

"As ready as I can be in a situation like this." I said, shoving my hands in my jeans pockets, staring anxiously at the front door.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Mom asked, coming up and hugging me from behind, "Nervous? Excited? Confused?"

"Is there an 'all of the above' option?" I laughed.

"I always choose 'all of the above' when I don't know which answer to pick." Addison said, entering the room and flopping onto the love seat, laughing a little.

"Dad just called! He's coming down the street!" Raleigh exclaimed, running into the room with Mom's cell phone in her hand.

"Okay! Okay! Calm down!" Mom laughed at Raleigh's sudden panic, "Now, I want all of you to be nice to Bryan. I want you to make him feel like he's welcome. We don't want to him to feel like he doesn't belong."

"Oh my word, this is so nerve wracking!" I exclaimed, biting onto my hand. It was a nervous habit.

Mom yanked my hand out of my mouth, "Just calm down! It's not like he's coming to execute us."

"You don't know that." Addison said, standing from her seat.

Mom scowled at her as we suddenly heard the sound of a car door in the drive way.

"Okay, they're here." Mom said, placing her hands on my shoulders and looking into my eyes, "Are you ready?"

"Even if I wasn't, it wouldn't really matter, now would it?" I asked, forcing a smile.

She smiled back and gently patted my cheek. We suddenly heard the sound of the front door being unlocked, and all of our attention was drawn to the door, all of us suddenly tensing. We watched nervously as the doorknob turned, and the door finally came open.


	3. Chapter 3: Are You High?

Dad popped his head through the door, smiling at us as he did, "Hey guys."

We stared at him anxiously, and he obviously knew what we were thinking. He opened the door all the way and stepped in. He turned to look somewhere behind him.

"Come on in." He said.

The moment that he set foot in my sight, we immediately locked eyes. We examined each other with extreme caution. I immediately felt some sort of connection that I had never felt with anyone before. A connection that I had no idea how to explain.

We took a few steps closer to each other as we just stared, not saying a single word. It was like looking in a mirror, except he wore black framed glasses that made his blue eyes appear darker than they probably were. It was almost scary.

"Are you high or something?" He finally asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." He said.

"Awk-ward." Addison said in a sing-song voice.

"Let's introduce everyone before things get any more awkward." Mom said, standing beside Bryan, placing a hand on his shoulder. He just stared at her as if she was crazy for touching him.

"My name's Illian." She introduced herself, "I'm your new foster mom and Tad's wife." She said, gesturing to Dad, "You know him already."

He glared at Dad as if thinking '_yeah, I was stuck in a car with him for seven hours. I know him well enough.'_

Mom then went around the room and introduced everyone one by one; Bryan not saying a word the entire time. He just stood there with this look on his face that said that he had absolutely no interest in what Mom was saying at all. Either he was tired of us _already_, or he really was just a quiet person.

Mom finally gestured toward me, "And this is Jon… your _brother_." She exaggerated _brother_, as if exaggerating that we were actually _brothers_… biologically.

"I can tell." He said, breaking his silence, "He kinda has my face."

"If anything, _you _have _my _face." I corrected.

"Ok, you both share a face." Mom interrupted, "Jon, why don't you show Bryan to his new room?"

"And where would that be?" I asked.

She glared at me for a moment, then glanced at the others. It was obvious that all of us were thinking the same thing, and that we were all hoping, just hoping that she wouldn't say what we thought she was going to say. I could just tell that she knew what we were thinking, and that our suspicions were most definitely true.

"He can have Carl's old bed."

I shuttered at the sound of that name. I hadn't heard it in so many years, and I didn't want to hear it ever again.

When we all shot Mom death glares, she gave us a look that told us not to say anything about it. Bryan didn't need to know that story. Not yet anyway.

"Are you guys having some sort of family conversation with your eyes or something?" Bryan finally asked, "Because if you are, then I have no idea what you're saying."

Mom smiled at him apologetically, then looked back to me, "Show him to your room, sweetie."

I glared at her for a moment, then turned to Bryan, "Follow me."

I turned and headed for the stairs, and he didn't hesitate to follow.

"Who's Carl?" He asked as soon as we got out of ear shot of everyone else.

"A kid that we adopted a couple of years ago." I answered simply, not wanting to talk about it, but Bryan didn't seem satisfied with my answer.

"Why did all of you give her the death stare when she said his name?" He asked.

"He's a touchy subject in this house." I told him, still keeping my answers simple.

"What happened to him?" He continued to ask.

I stopped walking and turned to him, causing him to run into me accidentally, "Why are you asking so many questions?"

He shrugged as if there was no logical answer to that question. Which there most likely wasn't.

"Dad said that you don't talk much." I said, tilting my head questionably, "Although that doesn't seem to be true."

He shrugged once again, "I don't talk to people that I don't like." He then walked past me and continued down the hall. He didn't like Dad? "So, where's my room?"

I turned and opened the door to my right, "You went too far."

He turned toward me, then scoffed, "I know. I was just looking."

"Sure." I said, shaking my head. I headed into my- our- bedroom, and he followed after me.

"Why are there three beds?" He asked, examining the room.

"One for me, one for you, and one for Landon." I answered, pointing to each bed.

"Wait," He said, a laugh hinting in his voice, "I'm sharing a room with _two _people?"

I nodded hesitantly, "Yeah. Why? Is that a lot?"

He seemed to be trying to hold back a fit of laughing as he shook his head, "No! That's nothing! One time, I had to share a room with 15 other people! Two is _nothing_."

I raised an eyebrow at him as he tried to calm himself down. It still felt really weird being with him. I mean, we just found out that we were twins, and he was acting like we'd known each other our entire lives. It was just freaky how similar we looked; I couldn't help but just stare at him. Although, he didn't seem fazed at all. He acted as though finding long lost twins was an everyday thing for him. I hoped that it wasn't, because that would mean that there were _more _of us. But chances were that it was just the two of us. Just me and Bryan. Me and my twin brother. That still sounds really weird.

He looked at me, then tilted his head, "Do you always look like you're high?"

"_No_." I answered sternly, "I'm just tired. I've had a rough night."

"Because of me?" He asked, crossing his arms.

I hesitated, but apparently took a little too long with my answer.

"You don't have to lie." He said.

"I didn't say anything." I argued.

"Exactly. You hesitated because you were trying to think of an answer. A _lie_. You didn't want to make me feel bad, so you were going to lie about it." He said. It was almost as if he was reading my mind, because he was right. I didn't want to make him feel bad, although he didn't seem to care. But of course I wasn't going to tell him that.

"That's not-" I began to say, but he interrupted.

"I haven't exactly had the best day either because of you." He began, "I got two hours this morning to pack _all _of my stuff, and then had to sit in a car for seven hours with that lunatic that you call your dad, just to get here to meet the twin that I didn't know that I had. You don't need to lie to me because I know that you feel the same way that I do right now."

I just stared at him, not being able to conjure up a response to that. It was like I was having some sort of giant brain fart.

He smirked as if rubbing his victory in my face. I had a feeling that that was a look that I was going to be getting a lot from him.

He sat on his bed as he sized me up, "What's your name again?"

I scoffed over dramatically, "Gee, I highly appreciate that you took the time to remember my name and everything, _bro_."

He rolled his eyes, "I just met you. How do you expect me to remember your name so fast? No need for the sarcasm."

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I'm your _twin_." I said, also plopping onto my bed, "I remembered your name. It would make sense if you'd remember mine."

"Fine then, what's my name?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Bryan." I answered simply.

"Bryan what?" He asked.

I shrugged, "How am I supposed to know? Nobody told me."

"Forder." He answered, "Bryan Forder."

"Where'd that name come from?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Dunno. It's just the name I've always had."

We were silent for a moment, but I finally spoke up.

"Jon." I said quietly.

He raised an eyebrow at me, "What?"

"Jon." I repeated, "My name's Jon."

"Jon what?" He asked.

"Cozart." I answered, "I don't know what my birth name is, but Cozart is the last name I got when I was adopted 17 years ago. It's the last name that everyone in this house has, because we all chose to take mom and dad's last name."

"Sometimes I wonder where 'Forder' came from." He mused, "But there's no telling. I've gone through so many foster homes, and boys homes, and orphanages, through so many families that I don't even know who I am anymore."

"I was kinda hoping that meeting you would help me to figure out some things about my past and where I came from." I admitted.

"Where you're talking to the wrong person, then." He laughed, "I don't know any more that you do."

I slumped my shoulders in disappointment. I was hoping that he knew at least _something_. But by the looks of it, he probably knew less than I did. At least I knew where my last name came from.

"Don't you ever think about that?" I asked, "I mean, don't you ever wonder where you came from, and all of that stuff?"

He shrugged, "Not really."

"Why not?" I asked, "I wonder about it all the time."

"I don't really care where I came from." He admitted, "It shouldn't matter where a person came from, as long as they're where they belong."

"Is that a quote?" I asked, "There's no way that you came up with that on your own."

"I think it's from a song or something." He laughed.

I couldn't help but laugh, too. It kinda felt like there was some kind of weird tension between us, but it felt as though our functioned as one, as if we knew exactly what the other was thinking, making our conversation flow more effortlessly than any conversation that I'd ever had before. It was just a feeling that I could never explain. Something that I'd never felt before. Yet it was the best feeling in the world. I just couldn't get it in my head that I had a twin. I couldn't get it in my head that Bryan actually existed. I'd only known of his existence for a couple of hours, yet I knew that there was something between us that neither of us had with anyone else. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but in time, we would both figure out that that feeling that we got was so much more than just twin telepathy. It was so much more.


End file.
